An Acceptable Loss
by AddisonRules
Summary: Their family is in danger, and that's not acceptable. An unlikely "what if" scenario for the winter finale ep. Spoilers for all things AoS to this point.


Because Oparu needed a hug and I had a crackpot idea. An unlikely "what if" scenario for the Winter Midseason finale.

And per usual, I own nothing.

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><p>Clint, Natasha, Maria, Nick, Sharon, her mother…<p>

May finishes the mental inventory of the parts of her world that are not here in this godless temple. They may not be safe, but they are not here.

The rest of her life, though… the dearest person in it and the most unexpected pieces… they are, and even if she can't leave with them, she has to do something to get them out.

Agent 33 has a gun trained on May's heart, finger on the trigger, ready to kill in an instant. She can see the excitement in the eyes of her scarred doppelganger. The woman wants revenge for being imprisoned in a reflection that isn't hers, and May knows that if she makes a move and it fails, she'll be dead a second later.

She can accept that if she can make it count.

Another shriek of terror from Skye pulls May's gaze that direction. She's seen the younger agent frightened before, but this… Whitehall's order hangs in the air and Skye has two HYDRA officers pushing her toward the obelisk. The Doctor and Phil simultaneously try to reach out to the scared woman and find themselves on their knees, blows to their heads, and torsos beating them down. Hands follow, pulling them into tight holds, denying both Skye's would-be fathers a chance to protect her.

Ward's face is implacable. May doesn't know why he's turned to Whitehall as an ally, but she does think Grant Ward is beyond redemption. Still, twisted as his feelings for Skye might be, he has them, and that's an advantage HYDRA may not know May has.

"Raina tells me she believes you are one of the chosen," Whitehall says, as if trying to reassure his terrified victim. "I simply want to know if it's true."

May's only gauge as to whether or not Skye might be safe against the horrifying effects of the "diviner" is the look on The Doctor's face. He calls out to Skye, telling her she'll be safe, but May can read the doubt in his expression, a twitch of anxiety pulling at his brow.

He isn't sure Skye can survive it.

May surveys the room again. Coulson is in a tight hold, but given proper motivation and opportunity, she thinks he could break free. Gun barrels point in the directions of Bobbi, Hunter, Mack, and Tripp, the Keonigs are in handcuffs, and Fitz and Simmons are being physically restrained.

But May sees the way Fitz's eyes are already eagerly calculating the best escape route from the tunnel given the counterforces on hand, should the chance for a run present itself.

"Skye."

Her trainee stops struggling and looks at her, eyes wide with fear.

"Who you are now is who you've chosen to be. No one can take that from you."

She means the words to be of comfort later, in the after of what's to come, but they seem to do the same now for just a moment, and Skye's eyes fill with such a mixture of love and understanding that May thinks she knows what it would feel like to have a daughter of her own.

But the moment is broken. The guards start to push Skye again, shouts from Phil and The Doctor following, and Melinda picks up the smallest flicker of movement from Ward's hand. She takes that as her cue.

Agent 33 fights like a perfect academy student, so May wastes no time using a combination kick and wrist lock she and Natasha spent hours perfecting on their own. The gun drops into May's hand and she turns it and fires before 33 can fully react to what's happening.

Her double falls to the ground.

As she races to the altar where the diviner waits, Melinda sees Ward unholster his gun, but it aims at the guards across the room, not at her. He will try to steal Skye away in her absence, and May reminds herself Phil will never let that happen. Ward will be an enemy again in an instant, but now he is a saving grace allowing her the chance to save her team.

To save this important, unexpected, much loved portion of her family.

The Doctor nearly hurls his guards through the wall as he bursts from their grasps and lunges at Whitehall. Phil will protect Skye from him as well. May takes that knowledge with her as she makes the last few steps.

In a moment, she'll be dead, a petrified relic of a woman who never wanted to be a legend. But the obelisk will be in her hand, and not Skye's, and those she loves will have a chance to survive.

May catches Phil's desperate glance as her fingers move toward the alien metal. He calls out to her, but she doesn't really hear what he says. She only takes time to mouth "I love you" before her palm brushes against the thing that has already killed too many people.

Hopefully it only kills one more.

It vibrates in her hand as a war erupts in the room around her. She remembers the waitress Kreel accidentally killed, the way the pain nearly radiated out of the woman's body, and May braces for the onslaught. She looks down, ready to see her skin turning, choking off her life as the thing declares her "unworthy."

It takes her a moment to realize that the fighting has stopped and she's still breathing.

Whitehall is dead, his heart in The Doctor's hand, and the man is weeping about the heart of his beloved, and May can only wonder at the horror Skye's mother must have endured in Whitehall's clinic of torture.

May sees that her team is free, HYDRA soldiers dispatched at every corner of the room.

Phil and Skye are the first to move to her, to look down at her hand and see the obelisk there, the alien symbols exposed, the metal glowing and alive in May's grasp.

Alive… and so is she.

Raina stares at her wide-eyed, fascinated and wanting answers.

Ward lowers his gun, too stunned to do otherwise.

And the rest of her family gathers around her as May feels the pulsating light from the diviner move through her whole being before it subsides.

Only when she sets it down does the illumination fade completely, the metal returning to the inert state it normally holds.

Skye races to her, arms thrown around her neck, and Melinda forces herself to move through the shock and pull the younger woman into a tight embrace.

Phil looks at her like he can't believe she's alive… and then he steps in, his hand needing to make contact to verify that this is reality.

"How did you…"

She doesn't know. May has no idea what it means that this thing let her live. She only knows that what she loves still exists, that even though there is a new, looming danger to face, this moment of peril has ended. So she shakes her head and Phil steps into them because Skye won't let go, and May breathes them in, grateful that today none of the losses are theirs.


End file.
